India becoming the pharmacy of the world is one of its biggest achievements in the past 75 years, World Health Organization (WHO)'s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, while listing out the country's achievements in healthcare. Dr Swaminathan, who was speaking at NDTV, listed out four big achievements of the country - from the elimination of polio and a few other vaccine-preventable diseases, to reducing maternal and child mortality, to universal health coverage to India becoming the pharmacy of the world.

Swaminathan, however, spotlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the delivery of essential health services in almost every country, including India.

There has been a setback in tuberculosis treatment, non-communicable diseases, in the delivery of ante-natal and child health services in India, she warned

 According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), malnutrition is a major contributor to disease burden in India and a predominant risk factor for death among children younger than 5 years of age. The Covid pandemic has exacerbated the situation. Dr Swaminathan has cautioned experts to look at the data carefully as the virus has upended families and pushed people into poverty.

"The Covid pandemic has also increased the rates of poverty and is likely to increase undernutrition in the community. So we need to really look at the data carefully increasing rates of poverty and undernutrition could drive up the incidence of diseases like tuberculosis, but also other diseases that are related to poverty. So this is something that we will need to watch closely and take preemptive action on," she added.
 
Covid infections in India have been decreasing and have stayed below 30,000 daily in the past week.(SAM)